Career Hotline
Moving on in market research
Pervin Malhotra

Q I am an MBA working with a market research firm for the last one year. Though the job is good, I feel the gestation period for making it big in this field is too long. Any suggestions on how I can put my career on the fast track?

— Rishi Sharma

A With a couple of years of work experience in MR under your belt, you can easily leverage your knowledge and experience to bag a job with a KPO. Pay packages offered by these firms, starved of competent staff, is substantially higher — by at least 30-70 per cent. Another advantage of working with a KPO is watching your career graph rise at a much faster rate than in a domestic MR firm. Within 1-3 years you will take on a client-facing role, something that usually takes as long as four years in a traditional MR firm.

However, you must remember the old adage `no pain no gain’. With the excellent career prospects and fat pay packages come the usual tradeoffs in terms of long and erratic work hours.

Although that should not necessarily act as a deterrent as the booming KPO industry is a hot destination for those who feel they don’t per se want to be part of the BPO bandwagon. Market research and analytics outsourcing is not the typical transaction processing work.

Moreover, the revenue from KPO is at least twice that of BPO - $22 per hour compared to $8 - $11 per hour — while capital expenditure per seat is about the same at $6,000 - $8,000.

There is no doubt about it — the MR and business intelligence outsourcing industry is expanding and how! In fact, it is estimated that more than 11.5 per cent of the 25,000 people employed in KPOs currently are in the MR area.

The real high-end projects have just started to roll in. To grab a sizable market share, India needs at least around 10,000 number crunchers with high-end mathematical and pattern recognition skills.

No teething troubles, here

Q I am a BDS student and will be completing my course this year. Are there any job prospects for a dentist in the armed forces?

— Koustubh Kulkarni

A Sure, there are. The Armed Forces Medical Service recruits Dental Surgeons in the Army Corps both in Direct Permanent Commission as well as Short Service Commission. The eligibility and selection procedure is as follows:

For Direct Permanent Commission:

Eligibility: BDS (60per cent) / MDS. You should have completed 1-yr rotatory internship; you must have a Permanent Dental Registration Certificate of the Dental Council of India and be medically fit.

Age: Below 28 years (on December 31).

Selection: Merit in BDS, written (objective) exam, clinical test and interview.

For Short Service Commission (SSC):

Eligibility is BDS (55per cent) / MDS. You should have completed 1-year rotatory internship,

You must have a Permanent Dental Registration Certificate of the Dental Council of India and be medically fit,

Age: Below 45 years of age (on 31 December, 2006)

Selection: Merit in BDS, Interview

All the selected candidates have to undergo medical examination.

For further information, contact:

Director General, Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS/Dental), Room No. 9, ‘L’ Block, Ministry of Defence, New Delhi-110001.

Incidentally, the notification for SSC in Army Dental Corps has just been published in all the leading dailies. Last date for submitting the filled application form is April 30, 2006.

Portrait of a forensic artist

Q I am excellent at sketching portraits and fascinated with crime and criminology. Can you give me some details about the different types of forensic art techniques used to nab criminals? Is this a good career option?

— Manvinder Singh

A If you are a regular who-done-it buff, Forensic Art could be the career for you. It is an artistic technique used by law enforcement agencies to identify, track down, and apprehend wanted criminals. If you recall the old Wild West films where the criminal’s portrait carrying a cash reward on his head was plastered on all the county walls, you’ll know what I mean.

Of course, forensic artists today are far more tech savvy and use computerised image enhancement or morphology not merely as forensic tools but as evidence in court. There are numerous instances where forensic artists have been called upon to track criminals – the latest being the deadly Delhi bombings.

But Forensic Art is no child’s play. It’s not just about adding wrinkles or facial peculiarities. You have to work up an entire psychological profile to be able to accurately depict the way the criminal will look.

As a forensic artist you need to be familiar with several disciplines including composite art, image modification, age progression, post-mortem reconstruction and demonstrative evidence.

Composite art: This one is definitely up your alley. You already have the drawing skills of an artist. To that add the sharp investigative mind of a police investigator and you can excel in this field. Referred to as the ‘Portrait Parle’ or speaking likeliness method of criminal identification, the artist reconstructs each facial feature of the criminal obtained from the victim’s memory. The real challenge lies in your ability to successfully gather, interpret and illustrate the information.

Image modification: Using computer-altered photography you can use this technique to trace people who have gone missing or absconding for several years. The amazing part is that you can actually add years to the photograph or even use it for age regression to get a reliable approximation to what the fugitive may look like today.

Post-mortem reconstruction: Computer-generated images, manual sketching any clay reconstruction are used to render facial features of the human remains of an unidentified, decomposed body.

Demonstrative evidence: Recreating the crime scene using basic pencil sketch illustrations or high-tech multi-media presentations during legal proceedings is also the job of the forensic artist.

Q I have done MBA Finance. Currently, I am working with a private bank, in the home loan and marketing department. I have 4 years of experience. Though I am performing well here, I want to be a portfolio manager in future. Please suggest the way to get there. Also, what are the prospects in this field?

— Santosh Kale

A Since you already have an MBA (finance) and four years of work experience in a bank, you should try to directly switch over to investment banking divisions of banks themselves or to large stock brokers.

If you are really keen you can enroll for the American CFA programme alongside. The course is designed to supplement the education and work experience of investment specialists. The curriculum will equip you with knowledge of the tools and concepts asset valuation and portfolio management.

Log on to: www.cfainstitute.org to obtain your CFA Exam Registration and Enrolment Package. Incidentally, you can pursue the CFA in India now. The tests can be taken at centres in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Chennai.

You could also opt for a relevant short-term course from the ICFAI, Hyderabad Details: www.cfainstitute.org or even one in financial planning if you feel the need.

SAT vs ACT

Q I am an undergraduate student. I would like to do my bachelor’s in the US. As my English and maths skills are very average, I am finding it difficult to prepare for SAT. What should I do?

— Gunjan Kaur

A Many students find SAT wordlists and its tricky maths questions difficult to handle and you are no exception. But don’t worry, where there is a will there is a way. Although most school leavers chasing dollar dreams take the SAT, few are aware of the ACT test, which incidentally has been in existence for the last 47 years and is one of the most widely accepted tests in the US for college admissions. And the best part is that it is much simpler than the SAT.

The ACT has four sections: English (45 min) which has 74 questions on sentence construction and you can breathe a sigh of relief as you don’t have to mug up the extensive word list prescribed for SAT; Maths (60 min) is also much simpler as the questions are of class 11 level covering 12 topics; Reading (40 min) has 40 questions on comprehension and science reasoning (35 min). I know many humanities students will get scared at the prospect of tackling science questions but let me assure you that a little bit of common sense and logic will see you through. There is also an optional essay (30 min).

And now for the icing on the cake: Unlike SAT, there is no negative marking. The ACT is also cheaper than SAT ( $ 47 Vs $ 81.50 for SAT and SST).

It is offered four times a year in April, June, October and December at the test centre at Lala Lajpat Rai Institute of Management, Mumbai.

However, you need to do your homework before you take the test. The optional writing section is not being offered outside the US. Check with the colleges you are applying to whether they want scores for the writing section in which case you may need to take the SAT as well.

By and large, public rather than private schools in the US prefer ACT scores. For details log onto www.act.org.aap or www.actstudent.org

You can access free test papers on www.testpreview.com

— The writer is a noted career consultant

Please send in your query, preferably on a postcard, along with your full name, complete address and academic qualifications to: Editor, Jobs and Careers, The Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh-160030, or at careers@tribunemail.com